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Lana Negrete Newsletter — October 20, 2026
🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete
📅 October 20, 2026
Good morning, Santa Monica,
Today is a busy day for heavy machinery. Sometime this morning, a crane is scheduled to lift our 85-year-old Pier sign off for its restoration road trip, and a few blocks south, crews are rolling onto Neilson Way to start installing speed tables. One icon leaves town to come back stronger, one street gets safer by Halloween, and meanwhile the City is quietly stacking sandbags, literally, ahead of what forecasters say could be one of the strongest El Niño winters on record. Also, someone carried seven pumpkins out of the Downtown Farmers Market in one trip last week, which is the kind of local excellence I refuse to let go unrecognized. Let's get into all of it.
🚔 Public Safety
🔹 By the numbers: October 4 to 10. Same deal as every week: the data, straight, in a table.
Metric | Oct 4 to 10 | Sep 27 to Oct 3 | 2026 YTD | 2025 YTD | YTD Change | % Change
|
Calls for service | 2,386 | 2,384 | 100,176 | 95,632 | +4,544 | +4.8% |
Arrests | 111 | 108 | 4,208 | 2,596 | +1,612 | +62.1% |
Officer-initiated activity | 1,022 (43% of calls) | 952 (40%) | 46,648 | 38,650 | +7,998 | +20.7% |
Resident-initiated calls | 1,364 (57% of calls) | 1,432 (60%) | 53,528 | 56,982 | -3,454 | -6.1% |
→ 💡 What this means: We just crossed 100,000 calls for service on the year, arrests remain up more than 62 percent over 2025, and nearly half of what officers did this week they initiated themselves. Resident-initiated calls keep trending down. That combination tells me officers are finding problems before you have to report them. Keep holding up your end: 911 for crimes in progress, 311 for quality-of-life issues.
🔹 A week of coordinated police work. During a traffic stop at Ocean and Wilshire, an officer spotted a firearm on the passenger seat, and when the driver reached for it, backup arrived fast: a loaded handgun and suspected cocaine recovered, driver arrested. Officers tracked down two juvenile suspects after a robbery on the Pier and returned the victim's backpack with everything still inside. A group assault at Tongva Park ended with juveniles detained and two booked for robbery. SMART Center information located a felony hit-and-run vehicle, helped coordinate with CHP and the Sheriff's Department on a vehicle tied to a homicide investigation, and prompted a stop connected to an LAPD robbery case. Every one of those lines is a neighbor made whole or a case moved forward, and I am grateful for the work behind each one.
🔹 Traffic watch: your reports are working. Officers made 275 stops with 159 citations this week, kept the pressure on overweight construction trucks along Wilshire between 19th and 26th, and responded to an injury collision at 22nd and Wilshire. And here is my favorite line in the whole report: after residents flagged stop sign violations on California Avenue, Neighborhood Resource Officers and the Motor Unit are now scheduling enforcement there. You spoke, they are coming. That feedback loop is the system working.
🔹 Homelessness response, both hands working. The Homeless Liaison Program handled 203 radio calls, logged 160 self-initiated contacts, addressed 18 encampments, issued 40 citations, made 19 arrests, and connected 6 people to SaMo Bridge and Samoshel. The story that stays with me: after sustained outreach, officers and HPI connected an individual to SamoPalm on October 5, with family involved in the recovery and a phone arranged so they can stay in touch. A Downtown livability operation produced arrests and citations, and after a camping-related arrest near City Hall, HoST crews removed more than 2,000 pounds of accumulated trash. Enforcement and compassion are teammates, not rivals. That is the whole strategy, every week.
🔹 SMFD: training for the worst so it never comes. The Fire Department answered 323 calls this week, completed 165 annual fire inspections, and sent four members to a two-day Regional Training Group Firefighter Survival course in Los Angeles, where they joined a regional cadre that will deliver State-certified survival training across the LA area. Our firefighters teaching other firefighters how to survive the job: that is expertise worth bragging about. HLP supervisors also joined an Office of Emergency Management session with Fire, HPI, Human Services, Recreation, and Library partners to plan for severe-weather impacts on people experiencing homelessness, which brings me to the next section.
🌧️ Batten Down: Getting Ready for an El Niño Winter
🔹 The forecast, in plain English. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center says El Niño conditions are already in place, with better than a 90 percent chance of a "very strong" event this fall and winter, potentially one of the strongest on record going back to 1950. A strong El Niño does not guarantee heavy rain here, but it tilts the odds hard toward persistent storms and repeated atmospheric rivers.
→ 🎯 My take: You plan for the storm you might get, not the one you hope for. The City is preparing as if the wet winter is coming, and after Hurricane Marie chewed up our shoreline over Labor Day weekend, I think that is exactly right. Our coastline has less buffer than it did a year ago.
🔹 Crews are already ahead of the weather. All five of the City's beach storm drains are open, cleared, and ready for service, with outlets to be cut as conditions warrant. Staff are coordinating with LA County to bring in bulldozers and replenish sand near Bay Street and the Pico drain, where Marie's surf stripped the beach, because restoring that sand reduces the ponding we would otherwise see during heavy rain and high tides. Massive kudos to our Public Works and Beach Maintenance crews for getting out in front of this early.
🔹 Next Tuesday at Council. On October 27, staff presents a full El Niño preparedness update across the entire organization, and we are planning to bring forward a proposed emergency declaration that would streamline procurement so we can move fast on disaster response if the winter delivers what forecasters expect. Doing the paperwork before the storm instead of during it: revolutionary concept, I know. Come weigh in.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
🚧 Speed Tables Come to Neilson Way, Starting Today
🔹 Ten days, one safer corridor. Work to install new speed tables on Neilson Way between Pico and Marine begins today, Tuesday, October 20, and should wrap by Friday, October 30, with crews working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Think of speed tables as elongated speed humps: they bring vehicle speeds down on a corridor that carries beachgoers, cyclists, and Ocean Park neighbors every single day. Message boards are up, sections of Neilson will close intermittently with detours and traffic control staff, driveway access stays open, and temporary no-parking signs are coming. Please use alternate routes where you can, and thank you in advance for your patience.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: This builds on the 2024 speed limit reduction on this same stretch, from 30 to 25 mph, and it comes from the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Toolkit presented at September's Safe System study session: quick-build fixes like speed tables, feedback signs, and all-way stops designed to be installed in weeks, not years. When we moved mobility and transportation into Public Works under the Realignment Plan, this was the point. A safety project that once would have crawled through multiple departments and a multi-year capital cycle instead went from design to installation on a quick-build timeline, delivered by our own crews. More of this is coming to more neighborhoods, and I am here for all of it.
👉 Explore getting around Santa Monica
💼 Economic Development
🔹 Main Street's next pour. Los Angeles Ale Works has applied for an Alcohol Exemption permit for a new taproom at 2914 Main Street, the space JuneShine left when it closed its tasting room in August. A quality operator stepping into a prominent vacant storefront is exactly the momentum Main Street needs, and I will keep cheering every single one of these backfills. An empty window helps no one. A busy taproom helps the whole block.
🔹 Retail talk, from someone who actually rings a register. On the latest clip from my sit-down on The Real Westside Story, I talked about whether iconic retailers like the Gap could choose Santa Monica again, and why I think they should. Thirty years behind the counter of my family's music store taught me what businesses actually need from City Hall, and it is rarely a slogan. It is permits that move, corridors that feel safe, and a city that picks up the phone. If you are thinking about opening or expanding here, reach out and I will point you to the right door.
👉 Watch the retail conversation (Instagram)
🔹 The Beach House is booked solid. With pool season behind us, the Annenberg Community Beach House has shifted into event mode, already hosting Caltech, the California Black Women's Health Project, ISSA-LA's security summit, the Reconvene Real Estate Conference, and the Pali High Class of 1976's 50th reunion. Every booking is revenue for the City and proof of how versatile that venue is. Kudos to the Event Services team working behind the scenes.
🏠 Housing: Promises Made, Promises Enforced
🔹 Two affordable housing settlements, because the fine print matters. Our Housing Division audits properties in the Affordable Housing Production Program to make sure deed-restricted units are actually serving income-qualified households. When monitoring flagged problems at 1047 4th Street and 1537 15th Street, covering five affordable apartments, and collaboration did not fix them, the City Attorney's Office stepped in. The allegations included units not verifiably occupied by qualified households, unjustified long-term vacancies, and incomplete reporting. The results: affordability protections extended by a combined six additional years, a $20,000 payment to support affordable housing, mandatory tenant notices, and a management probation period that lets the City require a third-party property manager if violations recur. Neither owner admitted liability.
→ 🎯 My take: Building new affordable housing is only half of Housing for All. The other half is protecting the units we already secured so they serve the people they were created for, especially in newer buildings that State law exempts from rent control. As City Attorney Heidi von Tongeln made clear, when bargained-for affordable housing is not delivered, her office will act. As a renter myself, I will say it plainly: a deal is a deal, and this city keeps receipts.
🔹 Tierra is rising at 14th and Wilshire. Foundation and structural steel work has begun on the Tierra Apartments, Hollywood Community Housing Corporation's 82-unit, 100 percent affordable senior community built on a former City parking lot and the old Petco site at 1402 Wilshire. When complete, Tierra will offer 40 affordable apartments for low-income seniors and 40 permanent supportive homes for seniors 55 and older experiencing or at risk of homelessness, with services on site and residents targeted to move in come 2028. Heads up, neighbors: through December 2026, expect intermittent closures of the parking lane, sidewalk, and right-turn lane on the east side of 14th Street between Wilshire and Arizona during work hours, with bikes detoured to 15th Street, pedestrians routed to the west side, driveways and emergency access maintained, and full access restored each day from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. HCHC will post ongoing closure updates on its Tierra project page.
🔹 A dashboard that shows what our safety net actually does. Housing and Human Services just launched a public Impact Dashboard pulling together results from more than 30 programs across five areas: Intervention and Outreach, Prevention, Affordable Housing, Health and Wellness, and Financial Stability. It also tracks the nine rental assistance voucher programs HHS administers directly, which help nearly 2,000 residents afford to stay in Santa Monica every month. Data updates quarterly and is current through FY 2025-26.
→ 💡 What this means: This is the Realignment Plan's data culture moving down into the departments. We rebuilt the citywide Scorecard into interactive public dashboards, and now HHS has a department-level version so residents, Council, and staff can see what programs actually produce, not just what they cost. Staff is already working on a unified Citywide Scorecard. You know transparency is my favorite subject, and this is what it looks like in practice: numbers you can check without asking permission.
🔹 Housing help, tomorrow, no appointment needed. Our housing staff holds Office Hours at Virginia Avenue Park tomorrow, Wednesday, October 21, from 4 to 6 p.m., with one-on-one application help in English and Spanish for Below Market Housing, Preserving Our Diversity, and other programs, first come, first served. It is the same day as the bilingual tenant rights workshop and LAFLA legal clinic at the park. The whole point of this program is meeting people where they are, including everyone who cannot get to City Hall during the workday. If housing paperwork has been sitting in your someday pile, tomorrow is your day.
🎓 Education, Arts & Our Youth
🔹 Our Library stood up for the freedom to read. For Banned Books Week, which landed as the American Library Association counted 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, the second-highest total ever recorded, with 40 percent representing the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color, our Library team engaged head-on. Teen volunteers tabled in the Main Library lobby making buttons and magnets from banned book covers, and the Library screened The Librarians, the Emmy-winning documentary about librarians fighting book bans. Library Board Member Judith Meister introduced the film and moderated a conversation with Erin Spivey, a former Huntington Beach librarian who pushed back against book removals there, and Charlie Jensen of PEN America Los Angeles. I grew up a music store kid who found whole worlds on library shelves, and I will say this as simply as I can: in Santa Monica, every reader gets to decide for themselves. Massive kudos to our library team.
🔹 The Pico Branch went to the students, twice. Library staff tabled at Santa Monica College's Safe, Seen, and Supported Community Resource Fair, where plenty of students were delighted to learn the Pico Branch, study rooms and all, is just down the street from campus. And at Libros Con Amigos, librarians Marilyn and Leslie moved between English and Spanish through songs, stories, and finger puppets to build little kids' biliteracy skills.
🔹 One more for the culture calendar. Chamber in the Chamber debuts this Thursday, October 22 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, with a free woodwind trio from the Santa Monica Symphony. I promised you the dais has never been used better, and I stand by it.
💗 Pink October, Week Four: Lace Up
Yes, it is me again, your friendly neighborhood survivor, and this is the week it all comes together. On Saturday, October 24, my Tough Titty Committee walks in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer right here in Santa Monica. Walk with us, donate what you can, or just come cheer loudly.
This month I shared something personal on Instagram about resilience, and about the kids from my music programs who hug me after seeing campaign mail at home and say they are sorry I have bullies. Kids see through noise better than we give them credit for, and they are a big part of why I keep showing up. Breast cancer taught me that resilience is not a personality trait. It is a practice.
And for the fourth newsletter in a row, because persistence is the whole brand: have you booked that screening yet? Early detection is the reason I am still the one writing to you.
Join me this Saturday and support below!
👉https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?pg=personal&fr_id=112403&px=60007271
👉 Read my Pink October reflection (Instagram)
🎉 Around Town
🔹 A small fix with a big payoff. Our Park Custodial team was stuck replacing flimsy plastic toilet paper dispensers in park restrooms over and over after vandalism. Instead of reordering the same problem, they found vandal-resistant steel holders, bought them, and installed them across our parks. The new units are harder to break, hold longer-lasting jumbo rolls, and honestly look better too. A team that owns a problem and just fixes it: that is the culture we are building, one unglamorous victory at a time. Huge thanks to the crew.
🔹 Pumpkin history was made. The Great Pumpkin Adoption at the Main Street market sent kids 12 and under home with free pumpkins on October 11, and the Downtown market's All You Can Carry Pumpkin Patch on October 14 drew bigger crowds than ever, including a new market record: one determined soul carried out seven pumpkins in a single trip. I have so many questions about their technique, and I respect all of it.
🔹 Spooky Splash returns Friday. The Swim Center's Halloween night is back this Friday, October 23 from 5 to 8 p.m., with a floating pumpkin patch, haunted house, floating obstacle course, crafts, treats, food trucks, and swim time. Kids pick a pumpkin right out of the water, decorate it on the Sun Deck, and take it home. The Aquatics team is collecting 300 pumpkins and donations through October 23 to bring the floating patch to life, and advance tickets are strongly encouraged because this one always packs out.
👉 Visit the Swim Center website
🔹 Circular SoCal, round two. On Thursday, October 15, the Beach House hosted the second annual Circular SoCal with Carbon Leadership Forum Los Angeles and AIA Los Angeles. We welcomed architects, designers, and policymakers for expert panels, a sand dune tour, and a local government policy deep dive, all aimed at a more circular, resilient Southern California.
🔹 Still on view at the Beach House Gallery. Portraits: Faces and Waves, pairing Anthony Friedkin's wave photography with Sam Comen's portraits from the Pier, runs through March 28, 2027. No rush, but also, go.
🔹 Day of the Dog took over Main Street. Sunday was a perfect Santa Monica day: Main Street closed to cars and open to pups, alongside the Main Street Farmers Market. My booth kept the kids busy decorating trick-or-treat bags and sporting Halloween tattoos, and I even had sunglasses on hand in case the sun showed off, which it did. Thank you to the staff, organizers, farmers, and vendors who make Sundays like that happen. Shop local, support our farmers, bring the pups.
👉 See my Day of the Dog post (Instagram)
🏗️ Development Watch
🔹 The ARB reviewed 145 new Downtown homes on Monday. The Architecture Review Board held public hearings October 19 on two Downtown housing projects: 1325 6th Street, an eight-story, 110-unit market-rate building planned for the surface lot just north of the Main Library, and 1323 5th Street, a five-story, 100 percent affordable receiver site with 35 affordable units and no on-site vehicle parking.
→ 🎯 My take: Downtown, where taller buildings are already planned and transit is at the doorstep, is precisely where growth makes sense. I have been loud about building smarter, not just taller. I flag these every week because you deserve to know what is proposed near you before it is built, not after.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Today, Tuesday, October 20: The Pier sign is scheduled to come down for restoration, and Neilson Way speed table work begins, running through Friday, October 30.
🔹 Wednesday, October 21, 4 to 6 p.m.: Housing Office Hours, plus the bilingual tenant rights workshop and LAFLA legal clinic, at Virginia Avenue Park.
🔹 Thursday, October 22, 5:30 p.m.: Chamber in the Chamber debuts at City Hall.
🔹 Friday, October 23, 5 to 8 p.m.: Spooky Splash at the Swim Center; pumpkin and monetary donations accepted through October 23.
🔹 Saturday, October 24: Youth Day at City Hall, the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, and Vote Centers and ballot drop boxes open.
🔹 Tuesday, October 27, 5:30 p.m.: City Council takes up the El Niño preparedness update and a proposed emergency declaration.
🔹 Tuesday, November 3: Election Day.
🔹 Wednesday, November 4: LAEDC announces the Most Business-Friendly City at the EDDY Awards.
🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: The farmers markets are open, and weekends are still where you will find me
💙 All In Through November
🔹 Two weeks out, three easy ways to vote. Vote by mail, drop your ballot at an official drop box, or vote in person, whichever is easiest for you. Vote Centers and drop boxes open this Saturday, October 24, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. I want voting to feel simple, not stressful, and every vote shapes what Santa Monica looks like next. Make yours count.
👉 See my voting rundown (Instagram)
🔹 90s Night proved my favorite point. Doug Trussler and I had a blast at The Penmar's 90s Night, and one of the best parts was sharing the evening with fellow candidates Derrick Townsend and Eli, who see plenty of things differently than we do. A campaign can be spirited without losing its kindness. We can disagree, enjoy each other's company, and still all want Santa Monica to thrive. That is the civility I keep preaching, set to a 90s cover band. No Nickelback, sadly. I remain hopeful.
👉 See the 90s Night recap (Instagram)
🔹 Come find us on the Promenade. Friends and neighbors keep stopping by Blue Wave HQ on the 3rd Street Promenade, and the schedule is stacked through Election Day. Come canvass with us, chip in if you can, and when that ballot surfaces from the mail pile, I humbly ask for your vote for Ashley Oelsen, Doug Trussler, and myself for City Council. Locals for locals, all in for Santa Monica.
👉 Visit Blue Wave HQ details (Instagram)
📱 Stay Connected
Got an issue to report? Want to make sure the city hears you?
If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on Instagram too for behind-the-scenes updates, event highlights, and my thoughts along the way as I continue to go on this journey with you.
🔹 Book time with me. Virtual, in-person at City Hall, or catch me at the farmers market on weekends.
👉 Book Office Hours with Councilmember Lana Negrete
🌟 Closing Thought: Eight Square Miles
I never imagined myself on City Council. I was a latchkey kid with a working single mom, raised as much by this community as by any one household: teachers, neighbors, local businesses, after-school programs, and yes, some of the police officers I serve alongside today were kids I rode bikes with back then. That is how deep roots can run in eight square miles.
I am thinking about that this week because so much of what is in this letter is about getting ready: storm drains cleared before the rain, speed tables in before the next close call, affordable units defended before they slip away, a screening booked before anything has a chance to grow. Preparation is just another word for loving something enough to protect its future. This city prepared me for a life I never saw coming. The least we can do, all of us, is prepare it for the kids checking the mail right now.
So donate a pumpkin to the Swim Center, say hi at the market, walk with me in pink on Saturday, and when your ballot asks you what Santa Monica should become, answer it.
👉 Read my Born X Raised story (Instagram)
With gratitude and determination,
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica